ISTANBUL

The US Justice Department has filed lawsuits against the states of Hawaii, Michigan, New York, and Vermont, arguing that their recent legal steps to fight climate change exceed constitutional authority and interfere with national energy policy.

The complaints, filed in federal district courts between April 30 and May 1, target two kinds of state efforts, according to a department statement on Thursday.

In Hawaii and Michigan, the department seeks to prevent state officials from pursuing lawsuits against fossil fuel companies for alleged damages related to climate change.

In New York and Vermont, the department is challenging newly enacted "climate superfund" laws that impose retroactive liability on energy companies for greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

"These burdensome and ideologically motivated laws and lawsuits threaten American energy independence and our country’s economic and national security," said Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a statement Thursday.

"The Department of Justice is working to ‘Unleash American Energy’ by stopping these illegitimate impediments to the production of affordable, reliable energy that Americans deserve."

The legal offensive follows President Donald Trump’s recent directive in an executive order titled “Protecting American Energy from State Overreach” which calls on the federal government to prevent states from enacting policies that he says "unreasonably burden domestic energy development."

Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division stressed the national implications: "When states seek to regulate energy beyond their constitutional or statutory authority, they harm the country’s ability to produce energy and they aid our adversaries."

The federal suits argue that state-level efforts to hold fossil fuel companies accountable are preempted by the Clean Air Act and violate the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause and federal foreign affairs powers.

In particular, the Justice Department claims the laws and lawsuits could undermine national security and raise energy costs.

New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act seeks $75 billion from fossil fuel companies to pay for climate mitigation efforts, while Vermont’s similar statute has not yet specified a monetary amount.

The department is seeking judicial declarations that these laws are unconstitutional and is requesting injunctions to block their enforcement.

States have argued that such laws are critically needed, especially as Trump is eliminating all efforts from Washington to fight the climate crisis and even banning any mention of it in government documents or websites.

These controversial steps come despite ominous warnings from scientific bodies and escalating weather disasters that dramatize how serious global warming is and the importance of fighting it to ensure a livable planet for future generations.